Increased coordination will help attract new high-tech, data driven industries to West Virginia, Belcher says
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
PIPESTEM, W.Va. – New River Gorge Regional Development Authority (NRGRDA) Executive Director Jina Belcher told members of the state’s legislature, on Monday, that increased coordination and communication throughout state agencies and utility providers will help attract new high-tech, data driven industries to West Virginia.
Speaking before members of both the Joint Standing Committee on Economic Development and the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary during November interims, Belcher explained that the NRGRDA is the state’s largest economic development authority (EDA). It represents Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas and Summers counties, and focuses on community redevelopment, small business growth through the WV Hive, industry attraction and site-readiness.
Through its site readiness initiative, which helps provide proper zoning designations as well as sewer, water, power and high-speed internet infrastructure to local properties in preparation for development, Belcher said those with the NRGRDA have learned the importance of having sites available and ready for prospective industries.
“We launched our site-readiness initiative after recognizing that the greatest barrier to economic development and diversification in southern West Virginia wasn’t a lack of interest, it was a lack of ready sites,” Belcher stated, adding that the initiative has been successful through its partnerships with county commissions and other local leaders.
As a result, numerous properties have been made ready for development.
“Many of you have heard about our University Drive site with Amazon locating in Raleigh County,” Belcher said, speaking about the new Amazon delivery station coming to Beaver, which is estimated to bring 75 full-time jobs with it. “That was eight months from site-ready diligence to locating Amazon. And, really, it was because the local community worked together and stepped up, and the counties stepped up to invest in that site to recruit Amazon there.”
Although this property is now under development, Belcher said that other sites are move-in ready, such as a 104-acre site adjacent to the Raleigh County Memorial Airport, an 80-acre property located along U.S. Route 19 in Mt. Hope, and 511-acres along Southern Industrial Drive in Beaver.
In Nicholas County, Belcher said that those with the NRGRDA are currently looking for large-scale properties that could be home to data centers.
Despite the success with the ready-site initiative since 2018, Belcher said that companies, especially technology, logistics, and data industries, are now starting to look for other requirements in ready-sites, such as development speed, infrastructure capacity and clear regulatory pathways.
“We know that we can deliver on that site-readiness,” Belcher said. “But now, as we’re sort of targeting these new, emerging sectors in these data sectors in energy, technology and high-performance computing, we’re trying to use those same proven site readiness methods, but we just have to scale those up.”
Belcher said these growing industries want “scalable power, broadband and shovel-ready sites.”
To prepare for enhanced opportunities, Belcher said that West Virginia should focus on coordination and communication.
“State and local development authorities and utility companies very often operate in silos, which creates a very difficult challenge to present a unified ready-to-go picture for prospective companies,” Belcher said.
Therefore, the state needs a “consistent and accessible system” to identify ready-sites and investment gaps, Belcher explained. Additionally, the formation of a working utilities group, which would include energy providers, the Public Service Commission, regional EDAs and the Department of Commerce, would allow everyone to be on the same page for industry recruitment.
Enhancing transparency and timelines across all agencies through a statewide resource database and exploring revenue sharing and incentive alignments to keep local government leaders motivated on site-ready partnerships are also important items to consider as the state looks to move forward with economic development, Belcher added.
“We know that these steps don’t require major policy change, just a lot of collaboration and clarity,” Belcher concluded.
